Do not run after fancy designations, because a reporter’s job can be more rewarding than that of an editor-in-chief, H.R. Venkatesh, Director, Training and Research, BOOM, advised IIJNM students on March 2, 2020.

In a presentation on “How to thrive and survive in journalism”, he said: “Cultivate a skill that is rare and valuable. Know to do a better job than bots. And do not run after vanity jobs or vanity metrics.”

Venkatesh advised the student journalists to do frequent job rotations, keep a track of where they stand on the ladder of life, and take career breaks.

“It is important to have people who can mentor you and sponsors who can recommend you to organisations,” he said.

He asked the students to find friends, siblings and partners who will support them when needed. A dream job, he said, is a combination of what one loves to do, what one is good at, what pays well, and what does good to society.

Venkatesh has spent 20 years doing different jobs. He studied journalism at Stanford University as recently as 2018. He was a senior anchor at CNN-IBN, a founding editor of The Quint, an entrepreneur with NetaData, and a fellow at the International Center for Journalists.

At BOOM, an independent digital journalism initiative that fights misinformation, he sensitizes readers about fake news.

By Savyata Mishra